Monitoring of Harmful Cyanobacterial Blooms

Nowcasting of harmful algal blooms is important both for the public and for environmental management purposes. In the Baltic Sea, summer blooms of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, are regular phenomena but the past years intense and widespread blooms have caused major environmental concern due to its nuisance, increased nitrogen input and toxicity. One of the most abundant species Nodularia sp. can posses a threat to animals and children. The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) has developed a monitoring application that makes use of satellite data to detect surface accumulations of cyanobacterial blooms and that assembles different essential sources of information at one website. The system has been operational since 2002 and is a service available for the three Marine Information Offices in Sweden, for public, scientists and marine environmental management around the Baltic Sea.